


Moon Witness

by Tatami_Hokes



Series: The Good That Will Come Out [4]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Inspired by Varian and the Seven Kingdoms - Kaitlyn Ritter & Anna Lencioni, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:28:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26584408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tatami_Hokes/pseuds/Tatami_Hokes
Summary: After being kidnapped, almost dying, and with his wound still healing, Hugo is finally forced to confront his feelings for Varian.
Relationships: Hugo/Varian (Disney: Varian and the Seven Kingdoms)
Series: The Good That Will Come Out [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1793437
Comments: 17
Kudos: 109





	Moon Witness

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! It's been a while... sorry about that. I've been so busy I haven't had time to write, but hopefully I can get a little more back on track soon! That being said, hope you enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Hugo sat at the mouth of the cave, just under cover. The sun outside was gradually setting, casting bright rays that skimmed the tree tops. It was raining outside, heavy drops of crystalline water which sparkled in the low sun.

The snow was finally starting to melt away. It didn’t make it any warmer, but it did make it easier to bear when leaving the cave. His boots had finally dried out for the first time in days, not that he’d done much walking in the past week. 

Hugo hugged his coat closer around him. The skies still looked angry, though they hoped to move from this camp the next morning, as soon as it cleared. Hugo was already feeling well enough to walk and all he wanted was to leave this forsaken cave. 

Nuru had told them the Earth Kingdom of Kalamir should still be a few days journey, but an easy one. Hugo found himself nervous of the promise of a new trial. He was still in pain from his wounds. More than that, he was scared of what might await them there. The ‘Stern-looking woman’ that had allegedly hired the bandits sounded awfully familiar. If it really was Donella, Hugo had no idea what she was playing at. He didn’t think they were even playing the same game anymore.

Was it a punishment? Did she know he’d gotten too close? Did she know that the mantra she’d instilled in him had broken down and rusted away, so much so that he couldn’t even remember it? 

He knew he was too close to his mission, but he couldn’t stop himself from moving even closer. Varian seemed to do that to him. He’d been changed in ways that he hadn’t known he could be changed. Or perhaps it was that this better version of Hugo had been there all along, and Varian had simply uncovered it. It must’ve been buried pretty deep; Hugo had never seen it before.

Hugo watched the rain fall until it finally stopped. The heavy clouds didn’t budge, so the sunlight was filtered and vague, but it was nice to be able to leave the cave without getting soaked. He pushed up from the floor, feeling the wound on his side twinge in pain. He’d be able to move properly in a few days, then they could face the trial and move on. He only cursed himself for slipping up and getting cut. Donella had trained him better than that.

He buttoned up his coat and left the cave. He’d been back on his feet after waking up a few days ago, and since then he’d been so restless. He took a walk around the path through the trees leading up to their camp, keeping the cave within his sights. It had been his usual route for the past few days. Hugo made sure to make rounds of the camp every hour or so, to check that they weren’t followed.

The bandits hadn’t followed them yet so there was no reason to believe that they would, especially after what Varian and Nuru had done to them. Still, he was ever vigilant. Everyone was now.

Varian and Yong were packing up everything they didn’t need for that night into their packs and strapping things onto Prometheus’s saddle. Their idle chatter comforted him to no end, which confused him. He’d always been a loner in life; always choosing to be alone for jobs rather than to partner up. It wasn’t for a lack of offers. He thought he worked better that way. Now? He wasn’t so sure anymore. Maybe calling himself a loner was easier than calling himself lonely. As if it was his choice and nobody else's.

“So, you’re on your feet again, thief?” Nuru said, suddenly appearing beside him. 

“Ack!” Hugo spun around. He hadn’t heard her approach. “Yong was right about you! You really _are_ a ninja.” 

Nuru huffed, “Not a ninja. Warrior.” 

“Right, right. What do you want, _warrior_?” 

She rolled her eyes at him, “I wanted to talk to you. About what happened back there.” 

Hugo noticed that Nuru seemed nervous, almost guilty. He didn’t think he’d seen the princess’s unflinching certainty in herself flicker before. “What about it?” He said shortly. He’d already had the run down about how they’d escaped, of how Nuru had competently dispatched of the bandits guarding her and rescued Yong. 

Nuru twisted the ties of her coat around and around. Her eyes darted away, “I guess I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

Hugo frowned, “What for?” If anything, he should have been apologising to Nuru. He’d been absolutely useless, to the point where Varian almost got hurt.

She finally looked him in the eyes, but they were dark and watery. It was hard to look at her that way. She seemed like she was about to break down. Hugo noticed just how tired Nuru was then. “The truth is—” She said slowly, the words coming out in a rush, “The girl at the inn was one of my warriors. Her name is Tilda. She’s actually a lot older than she looks.”

Hugo saw the girl flash up in his memory; her huge pleading eyes, her small frame dwarfed against the huge bandits that surrounded her. Her cold expression as she watched Hugo get apprehended.

When he didn't respond, Nuru hurriedly continued, “Tilda must’ve been trailing us since we left Delphius… I only noticed her in Sudalind, but to think she’d come this far… Father sent her, to watch over me. It was the reason she gave us such a nice room, for so little, and how she knew how many beds we would need. She said she commandeered the inn a few days ago, in anticipation of my arrival with regards from my father. I didn’t want to say anything, so I waited until you left before talking to her. When I went to talk to her after you left to find V and Yong, she had disappeared.” Nuru sighed and rubbed a hand over her face, “Maybe if I hadn't stayed back to talk to her, if I’d come with you, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Hugo’s heart was hammering, “Nuru.”

She looked at him, tears gathering at the edges of her eyes. “I’m so sorry Hugo. I could’ve been there, but—“

“Listen to me.” Hugo said, “That girl was a Warrior of Sarin, you said?”

“Y-yes. That’s right. She works for my father directly, but I’ve only met her a few times because she travels with Delphian diplomats. She’s older than she looks.”

Hugo shook his head, “That can’t be right.” 

“What?”

“I saw her when I was ambushed. She was clearly working with the bandits.”

“ _What_?” Nuru’s eyes were wide. Hugo watched her reaction closely. Her small features displayed only horror and surprise. There was no room for anything else. 

Hugo dug his hands in his pockets. “Tilda seemed sad, almost reluctant to hurt us, but there’s no denying it. Whatever her motive, she’s _not_ an ally.”

Nuru shook her head. “There’s no way…She’s worked closely with Father for years, she can’t have betrayed us. Warriors are trained from birth, they don’t just…” She stumbled back and pressed her back into a nearby tree, like she’d suddenly lost her strength. She let herself slide down until she was sat at the base of the trunk, impossibly small for someone with such a big personality, “I don’t believe it.”

Hugo winced as he crouched next to her, feeling the skin around his wound stretch in ways that doctor Varian would advise against. “I’m not asking you to believe me. I’ve not exactly proven myself a very trustworthy person, so I’d understand if you didn’t…” Hugo shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly self conscious. It was dumb of him to tell Nuru that she’d been betrayed by one of her closest allies. Coming from the lips of a thief and a well known liar, it must’ve seemed like a cruel joke to her. “I just couldn't keep it to myself.” 

Nuru stared into the woods beyond for a long pause, then looked at him and nodded, “Thanks, Hugo. I’m glad you told me. I must send word to my father and warn him, though what this betrayal truly means, I don’t know.” She sighed. “I’m just not sure who to trust anymore.”

Hugo smiled, but it hurt, “I know what you mean.”

Nuru’s mouth twisted in a reflection of his own, “I’m glad I met you, and V and Yong. This quest has been…Well, I know more than anything that I can trust you guys with my life. That feels big, somehow, like it should be hard to say, but it’s not. It’s just the truth. I trust you.”

Hugo tried to recall a time when someone had told him they’d trusted him before starting this quest, and found that he couldn’t. He’d trusted Donella with his life, trusted her to always show him the right path, but she’d never told him the same. Perhaps she felt he hadn’t earned it. She was always hard to please, growing up.

Realising he’d been staring at Nuru in stunned silence, Hugo said, “Me too.” He wondered if it was a lie.

“That’s good.” She said. “I’m glad.” 

They were both silent for a moment longer, watching Varian and Yong laugh and chatter as they started the fire at the mouth of the cave. Hugo felt the serenity in this little bubble of a moment, and wished suddenly that he could live in it forever. Leaving here meant facing another trial, getting closer to their goal, and closer to a looming decision that Hugo was hoping he’d never have to make.

“I should help them. Yong plus fire usually spells disaster. You coming?” Nuru asked, pushing herself up from the base of the tree. She held out a hand for him, and Hugo allowed himself to be helped up. His stitches twinged again, but he had plenty of practice maintaining a poker face, so Nuru didn’t seem to notice.

“Nah. I’m going to check the perimeter one more time before dinner.” He said. 

“Right.” She smiled gently, “Be careful.”

He nodded, and started into the forest. The sun was well and truly setting, and as the sky darkened, the rain started again. Hugo found that, for once, he didn’t mind it. He felt as if it was cleansing something from him, washing away the first eighteen years of his life. He couldn’t undo them, but on this night, he could forget them. He could pretend he’d grown up as a prince of a small Kingdom, like Nuru, or as a normal kid in a village no one had heard of. He could pretend he had a past that was uncomplicated, like Varian. 

He listened to the frogs croak in harmony with the crickets as he walked. On this night, he didn’t miss city life, but embraced the quiet comfort of the countryside. 

Hugo walked until his legs ached, and then some more. He caught himself thinking of trust, and the burden it was to feel somebody’s trust as a palpable thing, something that could be dropped and broken. He felt the rain soak through his coat, but he didn’t feel cold. 

The moon had started to show through the clouds, a milky and thin light that made the leaves on the ground look as if they’d been dipped in silver. 

Hugo thought about what he’d say if Donella emerged from the forest and asked him for a status update. What would he say to her? Strangely, he felt the need to apologise to her. The goal she was working towards, the one she’d been working tirelessly to fulfil for years, was a noble one. 

Hugo did not believe his his guardian to be evil. She was many things, but she was a good woman first and foremost. It was for this reason that he wanted to tell her that he was sorry. He was sorry that he had allowed himself to become attached despite his strict instructions to remain distant. He was sorry that he could no longer bring himself to follow her noble path. 

He wasn’t sorry for falling in love. He could never be sorry for something that seemed bigger than anything else he’d ever felt in his dismal life. It was like Nuru had said; it should have been hard to admit, but it wasn’t. It was just fact. 

Hugo realised that he’d been standing still, staring up at the moon, for a while. Long enough for the rain to soak through his coat and into his undershirt, and long enough for his knees to lock up.He fished out the tourmaline necklace from under his coat, and held the pendant in his cupped palm. It was impossibly cold in his warm hand. 

He wondered when he’d become so soft.

“You really want to get a fever again, don’t you?” Varian muttered as he emerged from the tree-line. 

Hugo looked up at him. He was holding a glass bottle that was glowing luminescent green, and he was using it as a torch. It made him look like a mad scientist, but Hugo supposed that was apt.

“I was wondering when you’d show up.” Hugo sighed, exasperated but good-naturedly.

One of Varian’s dark eyebrows quirked up into his hairline, “How did you know I would come?”

“Hmmmm.” Hugo hummed, turning back towards the moon that was now hanging low and bright in the sky. He let the patter of the rain fill the silence for a moment, “I knew you wouldn’t let me walk around in the dark alone. It’s the kind of person you are.”

“What, paranoid?” He laughed. 

“No. Nice. You’re a nice person. You care.” Hugo rolled his eyes. 

Varian held his gaze. His hands fidgeted with the bottle, casting rays of green light around the forest. His eyes kept darting to where Hugo’s hand was pressed against the necklace. “I think you care, too.” He said finally. 

Hugo smirked, “Of course I do, Goggles.” He felt obliged to add, “I care where my next bag of coin is coming from.”

Varian, clearly seeing through Hugo’s thinly veiled insistence that he was still in it for the possibility of money, huffed a laugh, “So what did you want to talk about?” He said, like they were meeting for a coffee in a civilised tea-room. 

“ _You_ wanted to talk. You came to me, remember?” Hugo said. He was playing a little coy, but Varian had been so bad at talking about his feelings so far that Hugo felt it was only fair to tease him a little.

Varian smirked, “And _you_ were expecting me.”

Hugo felt a blush rise to his face. He thought of the last time they’d properly talked together, alone. It was way back in Sudalind, when they’d watching the end of the festival and Hugo had realised that he didn’t want to betray Varian and his mission. 

“Fine.” Hugo said. “I’ve wanted to talk to you alone for… well. For a while. And back at the inn, before everything with the bandits, and me passing out for like two days, you said we’d talk.” Hugo felt that he sounded a little stern, but he also felt that he needed to do so to pin Varian in place. There was no way he’d let him squirm out of this one. “We haven’t even spoken about what happened that night.”

Varian looked strangely sheepish. “I’ve been avoiding bringing it up more for Yong and Nuru’s sake than anything…But you’re right. I owe you that. What do you want to know?”

Hugo was keenly aware that this was the first time they’d been truly alone in weeks, ever since Sudalind. It felt like years ago, like time was a liquid thing and they were all floating in it, powerless to influence its flow. It felt exclusive now, to be with Varian under the stormy night sky, time standing still for them.Exclusive, and terrifying. 

“At the village…” Hugo waited, but Varian only nodded in encouragement, “When we were fighting Ben, that huge bandit, you, uh—you looked different. Like you’d been in that kind of situation before.” 

“What kind of different?” Varian asked. He didn’t seem offended. He seemed almost like he’d expected this conversation.

“Well…I don’t know what they did to you before I got there. I don’t know if they hurt you—and before you deny it, I _know_ you lied about that. It’s okay. I won’t ask you about it again. But Goggles, the way you fought…you were angry. Not just any kind of anger, either. It was the cold kind of anger that I’ve only seen in—well, in someone I knew.” Hugo didn’t like to watch Varian’s eyes drop guiltily to the ground. “It’s the kind of anger that you only get after years of being angry.”

He knew that much. He’d seen the same kind of anger fester in Donella for years, for as long as he’d known her. It’d been bugging him where he’d seen Varian’s cold, emotionless glare before, but now he remembered. Donella’s eyes looked the same. The difference was, Donella looked like that all the time.

“What do you want to know?” Varian repeated, quieter this time. 

Hugo shook his head, “It’s not about swapping sob stories, remember?”

Varian produced a tiny smile, “Then what?” 

“I guess I wanted to make sure you were okay. I wanted to make sure that this journey isn’t making it worse.” Hugo said, “It’s only going to get harder from here. I don’t want it to break you.”

“Break me?” Varian laughed this time. “It won’t.”

“I’ve seen men broken by less. Much, much less. It’s not too late to turn back.” Hugo said. As the words came out, he thought of Donella’s face, screaming at him when he was a kid, when he messed up on missions. What was he saying? Turn back? If they turned back now, they’d never get to the library, and he’d never fulfil Donella’s mission. She would never let him back home. He would never be paid.

He realised that he didn’t care, not anymore. He just didn’t want to see Varian like that ever again. He knew he would if they continued. He would see Varian at breaking point when Hugo himself ripped everything from him.

Then he would have to pick himself up, collect his money and go home and pretend it had never even happened. He wished he could stop it now, before it was too late. 

To Hugo’s surprise, Varian’s hands closed over his. 

“I’m not going to turn back. Not now.” Varian’s voice was almost a whisper, “I have to finish this. And this is something I can’t do alone.”

Hugo felt himself blush. Varian had a way of making it sound beautiful, like everything would be solved once they got to the end. Hugo almost believed that it was true. “Okay.” He said simply. “I’ll follow you to the end. No matter what happens.” He knew as he said it that he wasn’t lying. 

“No matter what happens.” Varian echoed. He looked up at Hugo suddenly and smiled. He was close, so close now. Close enough to touch. Their hands were still linked. “Now, about that talk…”

“Oh, forget the stupid talk.” Hugo said softly. He really hoped they were out of earshot of the camp. Nuru would never stop teasing him.

“Says the one who met me out in the woods just to talk to me.” Varian said jokingly. “Anyone would think you actually care what I say."

“Hm, well we don’t always have to talk.” Hugo chuckled.

“No?” Varian raised an eyebrow, humour and anticipation sparkling in his eyes.

“No.” Hugo said. He rested his forehead against Varian’s. Their noses touched.

He felt Varian’s warm breath across his cheek as he laughed, “Finally.” 

Varian’s lips met his slowly, warm and soft, gentle as ever. He smelt like burning things, like the campfire, and chemicals, and like every alchemical experiment that went just right. Hugo’s eyes slid shut. Varian’s eyelashes tickled Hugo’s cheek. 

The world righted itself as they kissed. Hugo forgot what they’d been talking about. He forgot about Donella, and his childhood in Starksilber, and the trials, and anything that wasn’t this moment. Anything that wasn’t Varian’s hands in his hair and his smell around him. His heart raced in his ears, so loud that he was sure that Varian could hear it too.

Hugo sighed as Varian’s lips left his. He was instantly hit with a pang of longing. He was sure that _this_ is what had been missing his whole life, and now that he’d experience it, he wished he could be living that moment again and again for the rest of his life. 

Varian’s light eyes found his in the dark. The green glow from the bottle was dimming now, leaving the two in relative darkness. It didn’t stop Varian from slipping his hand up the small of Hugo’s back and kissing him again, deeper and harder than the first time. His other hand found Hugo’s hair, loose from its ponytail. Varian’s fingers tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck, almost painfully tight. His kiss was harsher now, like a hunger. Hugo didn’t want him to stop, even as his lungs ached for a breath of air. 

Hugo shivered. It felt different now. It was less like he was being kissed by the kind and accommodating Varian he’d journeyed with for the past few months, and more like he was kissing the Varian who’d fought the bandits. A Varian that was a little wilder, a little less caring. The Varian who had been angry for years, the same kind of anger that had hardened Donella’s heart into an icy fist in her chest. 

He pulled away, finally allowing himself to take a breath. Hugo thought of every other kiss he’d experienced. Mostly they had been motivated by drink, or as a means to an end, and even those that were supposed to have meant something now paled in comparison to Varian’s lips on his in the rain. He didn’t know what had transpired silently between them in that moment, but something about it had rendered them speechless.

Varian’s eyes finally snapped open, and met his once more. They seemed at once jaded, and exuberantly happy. Hugo cupped Varian’s cheek and stroked the hollow beneath his cheekbone with his thumb. He dropped his hand away. For a long moment, they shared a silent conversation, just listening to the rain as it pattered on the leaves around them. The silence ended in bewildered laughter.

Neither of them said a word on the walk back to camp.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> So that was a chapter!! There will be more to follow, we still have so much to get through, so stick with me!!


End file.
